In our modern society, there is an increasing trend to deploy Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications so as to automate a variety of data gathering operations and/or to provide automatic data communications in support of a variety of other automated applications increasingly demanded by consumers and service providers alike. Advanced metering systems (AMSs) through Automated M2M communications, for example, allow utility companies to automatically read utility meters, which eliminates the need for personnel to visit customer premises and manually read meters, while providing additional functionality and features to both users and providers. Today, some utility companies, for example, collect data using data communications with meter equipment as utility personnel “walk-by” or “drive-by.” Increasingly, there is a trend to use of networked communications to eliminate the need for personnel to even visit the customer neighborhoods.
Many networked M2M communications have utilized the public switched telephone network (PSTN). However, more recently, M2M communications have begun to use communication services offered by public mobile wireless communication networks. For example, M2M communications may take advantage of deployed wireless networks based on Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) technologies such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Long Term Evolution (LTE), and/or other technologies such as those developed by 3GPP2 and the institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE).
Wireless carriers have developed a text messaging service known as Short Message Service (SMS). The SMS service transmits text messages for display on the mobile stations. In a typical implementation, SMS communications to/from a mobile station use a signaling channel over the air-link and use out-of-band signaling resources of the mobile phone network for transport to/from a server platform referred to as a SMSC (Short Message Service Center). The SMSC, for example, receives packet communications containing text messages and forwards the messages via the signaling resources and the signaling channels to the appropriate mobile stations. The SMSC will also receive similar messages from the mobile stations and forward them to servers or terminal devices accessible via an Internet Protocol (IP) packet data network. Although the transport for the SMS messaging takes different forms, later versions of 3G and 4G wireless networks still offer the same or similar short messaging services for the still popular text message communications.
In a public wireless mobile telephone network, including networks that offer the SMS service, each wireless subscriber (whether it be an end-user or an end-device as in the case of M2M) is assigned a valid telephone number, often referred to as a Mobile Directory Number (MDN), which is used as a destination address to terminate call routing for call or message delivery. The MDN may also be used to identify the subscriber and verify subscription profile information during communications through the network. In developing any new wireless products or services through such a network, the MDN is used for implementation. Accordingly, data services provided for utility billing or the like utilize a device that is identified with a specific MDN number.
However, relying purely on an MDN to support M2M applications is not without concerns. For example, as traditional utility meters are replaced with M2M communication based AMSs that use MDN numbers for identification, one problem that is often overlooked is that the new meters are sometimes installed at incorrect locations. Currently, there is no effective system or method to correlate an identification number with a geographic determination for a remote utility reading.